by Ellie Pond
Elizabeth didn’t take her eyes off the seer. “She wanted to talk to you last night. I explained to her that you weren’t in any shape to have a lengthy discussion.”
“Well, things have gotten lengthy now.” Violet eyed the blanket over his torso and semi-hard cock. Even the seer couldn’t take away all of his desire for his mate.
“Do you want to talk to her?” Elizabeth asked, her focus on Violet as if she would step in the way of any harm that the waif-witch threw at him.
“What do you want, Violet?” Tad put his foot on the rolling stool and sent it across the room to her. She sat down, arranging her silk robe.
“I need you to talk to the captain.”
“About?”
“The vision you took from the well.”
He glared at her. He hadn’t taken anything from the well, not on purpose.
She pursed her lips at him. “I took a blood oath that I wouldn’t see visions about the captain. I was a fool for thinking I had enough power to control the well. I don’t; I’m the vessel. I shouldn’t have been so foolhardy. I could break the oath and leave the captain’s pack. I would heal. It’s not for me I’m asking. The oath has taken my apprentice as an extension of me. Sam is dying too. And she can’t leave his pack. Not yet.”
“And I fit into this how?”
“The captain wants your mate under his influence. Dragons don’t give up their hoard. Help me convince him that you’ll have her stay. But you need us to guide you.”
“Hoard?” He sat upright. Mine, his wolf cried out. He growled.
“Mu . . . wolf, did you hear anything besides ‘hoard’? The captain doesn’t think of her in a sexual way. But he needs her intellect.”
Elizabeth glanced away from Violet.
“Convince him to break the oath. For Sam. I’m begging you. And I haven’t begged anyone. Ever.”
She groaned as she stood from the chair and grasped the wall.
“I’ll see what I can do.” Tad’s voice was a whisper.
“Anna,” Elizabeth called into the hall as Violet left. His mate followed the seer out. “Can you help Violet back to her cabin?”
Tad slid off the table. Almost all of him felt better. He wrapped the blanket around his waist and followed his mate into the hall. Anna was getting Violet situated in a wheelchair against her protest. He sat down on the bed he’d slept in the night before. He lay down, as there was nothing to read in the room. He closed his eyes and fell asleep.
* * *
A kiss warmed his lips, a kiss surrounded in a lime and cherry scent.
“There you are, Snow White.”
He yanked her onto the bed with him. Elizabeth’s hair was brushed and her clothes straightened.
“Can I get out of here? I noticed Landon’s gone. He was gone before Violet’s visit.”
“I’m not ready to release you yet.”
“I’m not ready to release you either.”
“That’s good.” He pulled her on top of him and did his best to not grunt when she straddled him. She pecked him with a kiss and jumped down before he could catch her. Perhaps she was right. He wasn’t healed all the way yet. He lunged for her, and this time she heard the groan. Heck, the whole infirmary heard the groan.
“See?”
“This bed is too hard.”
“Listen, Goldilocks, if I let you go back to your cabin, your family isn’t going to let you get any rest. And if I take you back to my cabin, I’m not going to get any rest.”
“I pick the second option.”
She put her hands in her lab coat pockets and glared at him. “I’ll go get you some food.” She pivoted to the door.
“Wait.”
She stopped. “Do you need something else, Tad?”
“Yes, you.”
She placed her hands on her hips. “Something besides me?”
“Stay for a little bit. I’m bored.”
She shuffled to her little cot. She kicked off her Crocs and sat with her feet under her, her back leaning on the wall. “What do you want to talk about?”
“Tell me something else about you.”
“Captain’s been keeping job offers and other things from me.”
“How?” That wasn’t what he was expecting. Rage poured through him.
“Junk mail folders on my computer. Genius in the simplicity of it.”
“Junk mail. Wow. What are you doing about it?” He needed to touch her.
“I’m not sure yet. I want to weigh all the options. His deception could be our gain. I thought you should know.”
Tad laughed. “Going up against a dragon . . . I love it.”
Her hazel eyes twinkled.
His stomach roared. She stepped next to the bed and kissed him. “I’m getting us some food. We’ll eat and then I’m letting you out of here.”
He pulled her back and kissed her again, but his stomach rumbled and she tugged out of his arms.
“I’m going to feed you.”
“I like it when you’re bossy.”
She shook her head and left him alone again. He opened the drawers along the sink. Nothing. Most offices at least had some random drug informational packet shoved into a drawer, but this was a ship. Guess his mate didn’t need to worry about drug representatives interrupting her day.
“Hey, Doc.” Mike strolled in. “Dr. Cottage asked me to drop these off.” Mike tossed a pair of his scrubs at him. These had little teddy bears printed over them.
“Thanks?” Tad pulled them on.
“Yeah, Anna gave them to me for Christmas last year. Don’t worry about returning them.”
Tad laughed. “You’re getting these back.”
“Can I get you anything?”
“I’m good. Wait. Something to read?”
Mike came back with a stack of magazines, and thirty minutes and two quizzes later he had some ideas for a thing he could do to his mate.
He glanced up at a knock on the exam room door. Captain Matthias filled the doorway.
“Captain.”
“Mr. Larsen. I wanted to talk to you about your mate.”
“Interesting. I want to talk to you too. But my mate makes her own decisions. If this is concerning her, you’ll need to talk to her. I’m not meddling again in her career.”
“It’s more your career I want to talk to you about. I’ve been doing some research about you.”
“Then I’d like to talk to you about Violet and your cousin Sam.”
The captain grunted. “What about my cousin?” The male pointed his finger at him. “That is not public.”
“I won’t tell anyone she’s your cousin. Violet told me. They’re both dying. Your blood oath.” No point holding secrets back from the dragon.
“Fucking witches. I should have known it would come to this. Samantha will not be dying anytime soon. I’ll see to it.” He crossed his arms over his chest.
That was easier than he thought. Tad’s wolf strutted. Not yet, he told his wolf.
“Now, I need to talk to you.” The captain pulled up a chair and straddled it backwards.
Ah, the catch.
34
Spiderman
Tad pushed Elizabeth’s desk to the wall and moved the sofa over. He placed another chair between the two from the waiting room. The hanging spider plant swung back and smacked him in his shoulder as he crammed the chair in. Pain bounced around his body. He snatched the plant from the ceiling.
“You are out of here.” He marched the plant and its macramé holder out to the nurses’ station in the corridor. “Mike, can you make this disappear?”
“You’re asking me to take out Doc’s spider plant?”
“I’m not asking you to murder it, just get it out of her office. There’s barely room in there for the teenagers’ colognes and scented body washes, let alone a plant that’s trying to take over the world.”
“Sure, I’ll find a place for it.” Mike took the plant from him and held it at arm’s length.
“It
will be our secret.”
Back in her office, he surveyed the new layout. It wasn’t a lot of space, but he could make it work.
Like Elizabeth told him, Marissa came through the door first. “Excuse me, is Dr. Cottage here?” She craned her neck around the small office as if his mate was hiding under the desk.
“No, not today.” His ribs were still sore, but he had changed and put on his suit pants and button-down shirt with a tie. Somehow, he was more nervous about meeting a bunch of new students than his last board meeting when he told them he was taking a leave of absence.
“Oh, do we not have class today?”
“Yes, you have class today. Have a seat. I’ll explain once everyone gets here.”
“They’re usually late.” She sat on the edge of the sofa.
“I see. Well, I guess we’ll have to wait.” Tad leaned up against the desk.
The scene repeated itself until Joseph lumbered in, five minutes late. He pivoted to leave.
“Take a seat.” Tad sat on the edge of Elizabeth’s desk. “I’m Theodore Larsen, I’m going to be your new Biology teacher, and those of you in advance math classes, I’ll be teaching those too.”
“Awesome, you’ve got to be better than the cranky dining room manager. I don’t want any more word problems about how many diners can fit in the Panther Hall,” said Mickey, a dark-haired male.
Moaning erupted around the room. “The guy just wants us to do his work for him,” another one piped up.
“I’m sure he was trying to make the math relatable to a job experience. But that’s no matter. I will be taking over all of his classes. And perhaps English literature too.”
“What?” All the heads turned to him.
“Not necessarily—we’ll see. You like your English teacher.”
“The captain? Hell, yeah.”
Tad squinted at Mickey.
“Sorry, I mean, he knows a bunch of the authors we’ve read. He makes it . . . relatable,” Mickey threw back at Tad.
He wasn’t taking over the literature class, but he wanted to understand how the kids felt about the captain. Impressive.
Joseph jumped at a loud knock on the door. Granted, his chair was touching it. Tad nodded to Joseph, and he cracked the door open. Gunnar pushed his head into the room, his face scrunched up in confusion.
“I came to see if you were okay, and the nurse told me you were in here.”
“Teaching a class.”
Gunnar stared at him.
“I’m working.”
“You’re on vacation.”
“Not anymore.”
Gunnar shook his head and closed the door.
“Alright, then, I have your tests.” He passed them out to the students, who groaned at him.
* * *
His mate sat on the edge of her bed—their bed. He glanced around the room. He didn’t need a lot of space, but he was going to have to buy a lot more books on his Kindle, because between the books she already had and his, there wouldn’t be room for a bed. And he planned on using the bed with his mate a lot more than his books. He took his tie off and dropped it on her little desk. She tracked him across the room, still in her scrubs. Around her were binders, and her laptop lay flat open on her pillow.
“Thank you for taking over the class, but you didn’t need to do it today. You’re still healing.”
“When I’m given a task, I take action and I do a thorough job.” He lightly touched her elbow.
The pink blush he liked so much spread up her neck. She pulled her papers together and closed her computer. “A man of action. I like it.”
She stood up, and he saw it swinging above her bed. The damn plant. Mike had not only put the plant in her room but somehow gotten a hook in the metal ceiling. He pointed at it.
“You like my plant. I’m so glad.”
Screw the plant—he had things to do to his mate. He grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled it off over his head. He’d taken all the bandages off but the one on his clavicle. Her eyes went right to the white bandage.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fucking exceptional.”
He’d insisted that he teach his first class today. Elizabeth suggested that they teach it together. And after he kissed her senseless for fifteen minutes, she decided that the students didn’t need to see biology close up. Which would have happened if they’d stayed in the same room together. It was impossible to keep her hands off of him.
She was on him now, her hand traveling up his chest, her nipples poking the front of her scrubs at him. He yanked her scrub top off and sucked a nipple through her red lace bra. She killed him in a red lace bra under her chipmunk-print scrubs.
Elizabeth ran her hand through his hair, her leg looped over his. With a tug, he pulled her legs around his hips. She thrust her core onto his hard cock. His enormous hands covered her whole ass as he carried her across the cabin. Slowly he laid her on the bed sideways, standing between her legs. A tug brought her chipmunk scrub bottoms off. A matching red thong showcased her need. Elizabeth reached up and tugged at her bun until her auburn curls tumbled onto the bed.
“Fuck. You’re the most gorgeous woman on the planet.”
“I don’t know about that.”
He unzipped his suit pants and his erection sprang out. He fisted himself, his pants around his thighs. Had he ever been this hard? “This . . . this is what you do to me. No one else could do this to me, only you.”
Elizabeth pushed up onto her elbow and watched him, her eyes dilated, her panties wet with her need. Tad licked the inside of her thigh, his tongue tracing up to under the seam of the red lace. Her left hand circled her breast; the other reached for his hair. His hand darted out and caught her wrist, dipping her fingers under the scrap of fabric until she touched herself.
He dropped his cock and kicked his shoes and pants off the rest of the way. With both hands, he pulled the red lace away, down her legs, and off. He grazed gentle kisses up her leg to where her fingers played at her clit. Inhaling her as he sucked her clit into his mouth, her back arched off the bed at the sudden jolt. She moaned his name.
Releasing her, he lapped at her seam, poking and stroking her lips apart until she rode his face, both of her hands entangled in his hair, his chin covered in his mate’s delicious juices. He circled her clit with his tongue and sucked it hard. She broke apart, writhing around him, her knees squeezing his head.
“Tad!” She screamed her release and fell to the bed, her body glistening with sweat.
He kissed his way up her leg, stopping to lick her sensitive clit one more time. Elizabeth tugged on his arm, but he resisted, kissing her as he slid towards her hazel eyes and ruby red lips, his body nestled between her legs.
Elizabeth pulled at him, and their mouths crashed together. He snickered as his mate wrapped her long delicate fingers around his cock. He closed his eyes, enjoying her touch.
“You’re amazing at that.”
He saw a flicker of doubt in herself, of the women who’d gone before her. But there was never anyone.
“Only with you. I’m yours.”
She caught his lips, and she moaned into his mouth. He kissed her neck and sucked at the sensitive spot under her hairline near her ear. Her breasts heaved; her nipples poked through her bra. He tugged at the strap and she unhooked it and tossed it across the tiny cabin.
He palmed her breast, pinching her nipple. Her eyes flared. He thought his mate liked a nudge of pain. As he placed his cock at her entrance, he hovered over her, watching for her sign of acceptance, but instead she thrust up on him, taking him halfway in. She reared up as he slammed into her. At this rate he wouldn’t be able to last. Her pussy too tight, his unbreakable cock thrust faster.
His gaze locked with hers, her mouth open and moaning, her pink tongue covering her lips. She squeezed his cock tighter with each stroke. Squeezing her nipple and suckling on her ear, he angled her hips. His cock hit her cervix. He rolled his hips with each movement, hitting
her clit. A moan erupted from her as he filled her, his wolf howling with him. They rocked together until his sensitive mate could take no more.
He pulled her up the bed. He came back with a cloth to clean his mate up. On the floor he found a pillow to tuck under Elizabeth’s head. Tad crawled in next to her and brought her back to his chest. As he settled his head on the pillow, the damn spider plant swung at his hair. He stared up at it and growled.
“Are you okay?”
“Perfect.” He grabbed her feet and massaged her arches. She purred into the pillow.
“Now’s the wrong time to ask, I know.” He played with her hair. “Will you come to Spencer’s birthday party tomorrow after dinner service? I absolutely promise that it won’t take long and we can head to the lab right after.”
She kissed him. “Tad, your family is only here for the next seven days. I can spare some time for cake and dancing.”
“I didn’t say anything about dancing.”
“No, but Aurora did.” Elizabeth lay on her back.
Tad ran his fingers around her stomach in light circles. “Aurora asked you already?”
“Yup.” She ran her fingers through his hair.
“Aurora and Duncan set up this whole party—I just hope Spencer shows up. They’re worried about him. I am too. He’s only been drinking, sleeping, and moping.”
Elizabeth pushed up on her elbows. Her hair cascaded over the tips of her breasts. “When did he meet his mate again?” Her eyes were wide.
“Second night. It was epic too. Duncan clocked Spencer. If it hadn’t been my pack, I would have enjoyed watching it.”
“Five days?” Elizabeth asked.
“Last I checked, seven minus two was five.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Dr. Cottage, do I need to show you what happens to naughty girls who roll their eyes?”
“Yes.”
He flipped her onto all fours and kissed the dimple on her back.